Driving a Shetland - would it make it 'pull' more ridden/lead?

[Sarah1]

Hi all

Question is as per title really - if I get our little Shetland a cart to give her some work & a job then would it make her better or worse to lead and/or ride?

I'm trying to make her less strong to lead and had wondered if pulling a cart would make the situation worse.

Thanks

 

[*hic*]

How skilled are you at driving / breaking to drive?

If she's strong to lead then why not teach her some manners on the ground - unless you want a driving pony! I have found that experienced driving ponies tend to want to stay well out from the kerb which can make it awkward for small children and their leaders. There can also be an issue going into canter.

OK, since writing the above I've had a brief look at another thread of yours, just the first post though!

I note that you did some work with the pony, which is for your child to lead, last year and things got better but they've got worse with the lack of practice over the winter. You need to get back on top of the situation, repeat the work you did with the pony last year and if it so much as farts out of tune correct it immediately, working with your daughter once you have the pony back under control. Even the most experienced best lead rein ponies will, given enough times without correction, turn into little horrors. My own perfect pony when on loan and developed all sorts of bad behaviour as the loaners would not correct her for anything and she learnt she could push them around. It wasn't until things came to a head and she bit the child (I had told them so many times never to feed her from their hands) that they realised that she had to be treated correctly and that meant letting her know when she'd done something wrong.

So in your case teaching the pony to drive may well help as what you actually want to instill in it is that it behaves perfectly first time, every time. hth

 

[lora3786]

Actually learning to pull a cart shouldn't make much difference - the important thing is to work on the groundwork/discipline before you would put it in a cart anyway - last thing you'd want is a shetland being really strong in a carriage without basic good manners!
I drive my mini shetland - he's always been a bit of a 'character' in hand bless him, and can be strong, but knows what is allowed. What helped most with him is LOTS of long reining and groundwork before thinking about driving - taught him a lot of manners - would also help with the riding I would imagine.
Saying that - my boy loves his driving - and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone - it's a bit addictive

 

[littleshetland]

Well, being a big fan of little shetlands (please note the moniker!) I would like to congratulate you on your excellent decision to drive your shetland! your going to have loads of fun! I think that just the whole process of breaking, training and working the little one will probably improve general all round manners and behaviour. As long as every things done correctly, I don't think it'll make anything worse.

You'll be able to enjoy Ben Hur re-enactments and impressions of Queen Boadicea etc etc!

 

[Sarah1]

How skilled are you at driving / breaking to drive?

If she's strong to lead then why not teach her some manners on the ground - unless you want a driving pony! I have found that experienced driving ponies tend to want to stay well out from the kerb which can make it awkward for small children and their leaders. There can also be an issue going into canter.

Not experienced at all! There is a lady on the estate where we keep our horses who drives a small pony and I was planning on asking her for some lessons!

I don't want a driving pony - I want the little Shetland we have for my daughter to be nicer for her to ride and if she wasn't so strong that would make a huge difference. I will be working on her ground manners over the spring/summer but I just thought she might enjoy having a 'job' to do while my daughter is hit & miss with the riding and had wondered if it might help with her training in any way

 

[*hic*]

Sarah - I edited my post as I've since read one of your elsewhere - but whilst I was editing several other posts appeared.

I think it's general manners that are required - so driving might help but really it's instant obedience you want.

 

[millikins]

My Shetland X is a lovely driving pony, she can get very rude and bargy if she doesn't do enough work though, you can almost see her breathe a sigh of relief when the harness comes out. That may be all that's wrong with yours. Agree with others re manners, but even if you aren't experienced at driving, you could get as far as pulling a log/tyre with help from a DVD or book. Even if it didn't help, pulling a tyre in harness would be a selling point.

 

[Sarah1]

Actually learning to pull a cart shouldn't make much difference - the important thing is to work on the groundwork/discipline before you would put it in a cart anyway - last thing you'd want is a shetland being really strong in a carriage without basic good manners!
I drive my mini shetland - he's always been a bit of a 'character' in hand bless him, and can be strong, but knows what is allowed. What helped most with him is LOTS of long reining and groundwork before thinking about driving - taught him a lot of manners - would also help with the riding I would imagine.
Saying that - my boy loves his driving - and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone - it's a bit addictive

Well, being a big fan of little shetlands (please note the moniker!) I would like to congratulate you on your excellent decision to drive your shetland! your going to have loads of fun! I think that just the whole process of breaking, training and working the little one will probably improve general all round manners and behaviour. As long as every things done correctly, I don't think it'll make anything worse.

You'll be able to enjoy Ben Hur re-enactments and impressions of Queen Boadicea etc etc!

Thank you both for your replies and advice! I will be doing lots of long reining/lungeing/in hand work with the little darling over the coming months and hopefully this will encourange my daughter to ride or at least make it easier to sell the Shetland on, if my daughter doesn't really take to it.
We have thought for a while that she could help carry stuff to & from the field if we had a little trap for her and could help with poo picking etc! I think she would really enjoy some proper work tbh!

 

[Sarah1]

Sarah - I edited my post as I've since read one of your elsewhere - but whilst I was editing several other posts appeared.

I think it's general manners that are required - so driving might help but really it's instant obedience you want.

Easier said than done! I worked with her last summer and things did improve but with less work over winter she's reverted back to being a bit of a brute at times!

 

[*hic*]

Just to add: Any pony can be too strong to lead (my perfect pony's loaners found that out too after I begged them never to put their wrists through the loop on their lead rope and the father got dragged a couple of hundred yards before he could get his hand out when he was leading another of my ponies which spooked and was frightened further when he fell over and was being dragged) you need to instill in the pony the understanding that it stays right by its leader at all times.

 

[Sarah1]

My Shetland X is a lovely driving pony, she can get very rude and bargy if she doesn't do enough work though, you can almost see her breathe a sigh of relief when the harness comes out. That may be all that's wrong with yours. Agree with others re manners, but even if you aren't experienced at driving, you could get as far as pulling a log/tyre with help from a DVD or book. Even if it didn't help, pulling a tyre in harness would be a selling point.

Thanks for the reply - pulling a tyre or something might actually be all we need to help focus her and/or take the edge off her a bit and as you say it will be a good selling point if she doesn't work out for us.
She's generally a sweet pony but I think with her previous owner she was allowed to get away with a lot so unless you are 100% on her case 100% of the time she just reverts back to being a bolshy little madame! I need to 'fix' her once & for all really and instill some manners that she doesn't forget when it suits!

 

[*hic*]

Easier said than done! I worked with her last summer and things did improve but with less work over winter she's reverted back to being a bit of a brute at times!

Everytime you do anything with her you need to keep her absolutely in line. If you can include even five minutes a day walking round the yard or up the road or even to the fields where you walk and she stays with you, you stop and she stops, you turn left and she turns left with you that will make her much easier for your daughter.

 

[*hic*]

I need to 'fix' her once & for all really and instill some manners that she doesn't forget when it suits!

It doesn't work like that - if you don't keep absolutely on top of them they will learn new manners - bad ones.

 

[Sarah1]

Just to add: Any pony can be too strong to lead (my perfect pony's loaners found that out too after I begged them never to put their wrists through the loop on their lead rope and the father got dragged a couple of hundred yards before he could get his hand out when he was leading another of my ponies which spooked and was frightened further when he fell over and was being dragged) you need to instill in the pony the understanding that it stays right by its leader at all times.

This is exactly what I need to do & what I will being working towards from this weekend through the spring/summer. We have had lots of horses & ponies over the years so I'm confident it's something I can bottom but I think the fact that she's quite a nervous character around adults in general means that I tend to be softer on her than I probably ought to be and she's a wily little thing who will pick up on any kind of loophole that might get her what she wants!

 

[lora3786]

Why not try to make it fun for both pony and daughter - in hand and riding you could set up little obstacle courses & challenges - lots of walk/halt transitions, turning round cones etc - might help to keep your daughter interested & would give pony something else to think about?

 

[littleshetland]

Thank you both for your replies and advice! I will be doing lots of long reining/lungeing/in hand work with the little darling over the coming months and hopefully this will encourange my daughter to ride or at least make it easier to sell the Shetland on, if my daughter doesn't really take to it.
We have thought for a while that she could help carry stuff to & from the field if we had a little trap for her and could help with poo picking etc! I think she would really enjoy some proper work tbh!

Absoloutly, once they get the hang of it , they're proper little workers and really seem to enjoy it. I use mine for transporting heavy batteries to and from our furthest field and any other heavy objects (myself included...).

 

[Sarah1]

Everytime you do anything with her you need to keep her absolutely in line. If you can include even five minutes a day walking round the yard or up the road or even to the fields where you walk and she stays with you, you stop and she stops, you turn left and she turns left with you that will make her much easier for your daughter.

It doesn't work like that - if you don't keep absolutely on top of them they will learn new manners - bad ones.

Yep, am well aware of that - as I say we've had lots of various horses and ponies over the years. The problem is that in the winter I have no daylight to do anything with her - we've no school and I work full time so any interaction is in the way of having her feet picked out & being led to/from the field etc. during the week. Weekends are slightly easier. Plus I have my own horse so I have 2 horses to work with and very little time to do it during the winter months!

 

[PollyP99]

Sounds like it could be great fun i think anything bored is naughty, idle hands and all that!

Also, someone I know just bought a pony broken to drive and it is a dream to handle and ride as it's response to the voice is impeccable so your original point I would say it doesn't make them stronger. If done correctly it makes them more responsive.

 

[Sarah1]

Why not try to make it fun for both pony and daughter - in hand and riding you could set up little obstacle courses & challenges - lots of walk/halt transitions, turning round cones etc - might help to keep your daughter interested & would give pony something else to think about?

I definitely think this is something they would both enjoy - I need to improve her manners first though or she would just drag my daughter around!

 

[Sarah1]

Absoloutly, once they get the hang of it , they're proper little workers and really seem to enjoy it. I use mine for transporting heavy batteries to and from our furthest field and any other heavy objects (myself included...).

Sounds like it could be great fun i think anything bored is naughty, idle hands and all that!

If only there was a 'like' button!

 

[lora3786]

I definitely think this is something they would both enjoy - I need to improve her manners first though or she would just drag my daughter around!

Would your daughter/pony tolerate you holding a lead on the other side as a back up for your daughter?

 

[Sarah1]

Would your daughter/pony tolerate you holding a lead on the other side as a back up for your daughter?

Pony would - daughter might not! She likes to do everything herself!!!! We could give it a whirl though and the dually has arrived this morning which might make it easier for my daughter